How to upgrade a macbook air ssd?

I have a 128GB ssd and it's finally completely filled up with applications crashing. I'm unable to make any more space as primary consumers of space are my itunes and iphoto libraries which I'm unable to reduce.

So I thought why not upgrade my ssd. I called up Apple retail store and was told that one can't upgrade the ssd on a macbook air because everything is fixed in place and the slightest mistake could scatter the lithium polymer from the batteries everywhere.

My reaction was: wtf. My ssd is full and I need to upgrade. Are you telling me I need to buy a brand new mac?!

Anyway, what can I do here? Can anyone recommend a shop in London which will do the upgrade from 128GB to 512GB SSD for me?

Failing being unable to upgrade, you could always move your iTunes and iPhoto library off to an external HD or large USB stick.

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Yes I was wondering about doing this. Is it just a case of moving these and then updating locations in iTunes and iPhoto? I noticed in the case of iPhoto I cannot even go into the folder - it seems to be some sort of special folder which if you double click opens iPhoto. Also I guess doing this will mean I won't be able to sync new iTunes or iPhoto content to my iPhone and iPad without having the external drive always attached which I could live with I suppose.

This would be the more cost effective solution unless you're dead set against needing to carry anything beyond your laptop. (although some USB sticks are very very small)

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Well one of the reasons I have an 11" MBA is that I want the bare minimum footprint of weight when carrying. Surprisingly even the most recent highest spec MBA in an Apple Store is only 256GB. I understand this is because of cost. The 512GB would be too expensive for most people but to be honest these days smaller capacities are just not big enough. I'm not a power user and my MBA still ran out of space admittedly after a few years.

If music is what is filling up your drive maybe iTunes Match would help?

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Very interesting thanks. But this raises a few questions. Will it be suitable for music not legally purchased and when playing music away from wifi will it use up all my 3G allowance (currently 500MB). Not sure if this is ideal.

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Very interesting thanks. But this raises a few questions. Will it be suitable for music not legally purchased and when playing music away from wifi will it use up all my 3G allowance (currently 500MB). Not sure if this is ideal.

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It will match any music on your drive regardless of source. Yes, it will use your 3G if away from wifi (assume you have some kind of 3G data dongle?). But you can still keep songs on your drive to play when away from wifi, you just don't have to keep them all.

Very interesting thanks. But this raises a few questions. Will it be suitable for music not legally purchased and when playing music away from wifi will it use up all my 3G allowance (currently 500MB). Not sure if this is ideal.

Yes I was wondering about doing this. Is it just a case of moving these and then updating locations in iTunes and iPhoto? I noticed in the case of iPhoto I cannot even go into the folder - it seems to be some sort of special folder which if you double click opens iPhoto. Also I guess doing this will mean I won't be able to sync new iTunes or iPhoto content to my iPhone and iPad without having the external drive always attached which I could live with I suppose.

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To get to your pictures, right click your "iPhoto Library" file and choose "Show Package Contents"

From there you should see a folder labeled "Masters". This is where your photos are.
All of your photos will be in corresponding folders labeled by the year > month > day.

I would suggest a small 320-500GB USB drive that doesn't require an external power source.
Something like or similar to the WD Passport.
Grab a silver one to more closely match your laptop.

To get to your pictures, right click your "iPhoto Library" file and choose "Show Package Contents"

From there you should see a folder labeled "Masters". This is where your photos are.
All of your photos will be in corresponding folders labeled by the year > month > day.

Click to expand...

It's usually a bad idea to go poking around in the iPhoto database. Unfortunately iPhoto doesn't have the ability to "relocate masters" like can be done in Aperture. I have heard of folks who have moved those "masters" and were able to get iPhoto to find them again. However, it doesn't always work and once you break the database you are in trouble.

Another option may be to create multiple iPhoto libraries, and only keep the ones on the SSD that are most important and move the others to a stick.

If you have Photostream turned on with automatic creation of events, you can fill up your SSD quickly with a bunch of so-so photos. Cleaning out those events is usually a good idea.

Thanks a lot guys. So I think the most economical option is for me to use the smallest size yet largest capacity external HD for iTunes, iPhoto and automatic Time Machine backup. At the moment I'm only doing the last of those three. Currently I have a Samsung 1TB drive which I'll continue using.

It's a bit slow being USB2 but I doubt my MBA supports USB3 Yet another reason to get the latest MBA! I'll still be putting as much of my music as possible on my iPhone and iPad but it'll be from my external HD.

Regarding a new SSD I'm hesitating to spend a small fortune on it when I can just buy a new MBA for a little more money. And iTunes Match, although a great feature, I don't think I'll need if I start using an external HD.

By the way, I'm very new to this forum and I just want to say you guys are phenomenal. So many answers so quickly. I'm very glad to part of this Apple community.

It's usually a bad idea to go poking around in the iPhoto database. Unfortunately iPhoto doesn't have the ability to "relocate masters" like can be done in Aperture. I have heard of folks who have moved those "masters" and were able to get iPhoto to find them again. However, it doesn't always work and once you break the database you are in trouble.

Another option may be to create multiple iPhoto libraries, and only keep the ones on the SSD that are most important and move the others to a stick.

If you have Photostream turned on with automatic creation of events, you can fill up your SSD quickly with a bunch of so-so photos. Cleaning out those events is usually a good idea.

Click to expand...

Hmm. So there goes my iPhoto relocation idea. To be quite frank I don't really need iPhoto. The only reason I use it is so that I can flick through photos quickly and delete the bad ones. Doing so in preview is well impossible as far as I can tell. So I can probably just stop using iPhoto. I'm quite happy to browse through image files manually without needing to store them on the SSD. If you guys know of a decent image browser let me know. Good point about photostream - I hadn't realised these go into iPhoto too. Not to mention the iPhone imports on every connect.

The bundle kit is $319 for 240 GB PLUS you get an external enclosure, so you can keep the 128 GB for file backup, etc.

I did this for my 2010 11" Air, and from the cloning of my old drive to the new to booting with the new drive installed took a little over an hour, with most of that time used for the clone. Worked like a charm.

I saw you post about buying a new MacBook Air being "only slightly more"...maybe if you went ape and got the 480 GB. 240 has been a beautiful thing, and the little slim 128 GB SSD external is a great bonus.

DO NOT SCREW AROUND INSIDE THE IPHOTO LIBRARY FOLDER UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

If you'd like to offload the library, copy the entire thing and then open iPhoto holding down Option.

Seriously though, don't screw with the iPhoto library.

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First rule is to backup your library of course

I have never had problems combining multiple iPhoto libraries.
I just recently combined 7 separate libraries, whenever I format my hard drive I'll copy my iPhoto library to storage and date it.
Once I reload iLife, I open iPhoto, File, and Import to Library, point to the folders.
Every photo now in one library.

I'm sure some must have screwed some stuff up before so be careful and backup before doing anything.

You don't need to carry all your photos and tunes with you all the time. Offload them onto that external disk, and then carry a 32~64gb usb stick with you in case you need the additional space.

You could even upload your trimmed itunes library onto the stick but I wouldn't recommend leaving it plugged in the whole time especially when you're outside. People get careless. People that are not you. You get careless too.

The bundle kit is $319 for 240 GB PLUS you get an external enclosure, so you can keep the 128 GB for file backup, etc.

I did this for my 2010 11" Air, and from the cloning of my old drive to the new to booting with the new drive installed took a little over an hour, with most of that time used for the clone. Worked like a charm.

I saw you post about buying a new MacBook Air being "only slightly more"...maybe if you went ape and got the 480 GB. 240 has been a beautiful thing, and the little slim 128 GB SSD external is a great bonus.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

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Thanks. This was very helpful. I don't know why but I have a tendency to overcompensate for any problems I'm having. I was thinking of the 480GB originally and was put off by the cost but I suppose I could go for the 240GB which might be enough as long as I don't put my entire music and photo collection on it. Plus I'll have an external drive though I wonder if it'll be any smaller than the Samsung I have which I linked to above. I'll have a think about this. (Why are the OWC ssd sizes so irregular and different from apple sizes!)

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